Advances in the financial and information technology industries have transformed the way items, such as automobiles, are bought and sold. Automobiles, for example, were once almost exclusively purchased after a prospective buyer ventured onto the lot of the local car dealership. Today, many of these transactions occur between a private seller and a private buyer via the Internet, without the involvement of a dealer at all.
A private transaction has advantages—namely price, lack of hassle, and more natural comfort in the negotiation process, but disadvantages as well. Few buyers can afford to pay cash up front for an expensive purchase such as an automobile, and buyers may struggle to get loan financing from a financial service account provider for a purchase from an independent seller. Additionally, individual sellers of cars are wary of accepting cash from buyers (for example, due to risk of fraud) and are unable to share in the financial benefits of facilitating lending in the way dealers currently do (i.e. dealers currently get a cut of loan profits, individual sellers do not).
Accordingly, a need exists in the current marketplace to provide independent sellers of items the capability to provide financing options directly to prospective buyers of their items.